When combined with a hosted Microsoft Dynamics CRM deployment, an External Connector (EC) license can be a great tool for providing self-help resources to customers or partners. At xRM, we have used External Connector licenses to help our customers improve customer service and achieve significant cost savings.

An External Connector license allows users from outside your organization to access your Microsoft Dynamics CRM instance. External users can basically be anyone who is not an employee of the organization or an on-site contractor. Examples of external users include clients, suppliers, partners, and alumni of your organization.

Depending on the particular External Connector license, your outside users can be given either read-only or read-write access to the data in your CRM database. However, your external users may not use Microsoft Dynamics CRM applications directly through the Dynamics CRM user interface. Instead, access a customer portal typically provides access to the records in CRM.

As an alternative to an External Connector license, some organizations may choose to license each external user with a separate Client Access License (CAL).

Dynamics CRM External Connector License Types

Limited External Connector: The Limited EC license provides external users with read-only access to the CRM server. In other words, external users may access CRM information but cannot make any edits or updates to it.

Full Use Additive External Connector: When used in conjunction with a limited EC license, a Full Use Additive EC license gives external users write access to the CRM server, thus allowing full read-write access to the server. The Full Use Additive EC license may be used only in conjunction with a limited EC license.

External Connector: The EC license provides external users with full read-write access to the CRM server. The EC license is functionally equivalent to a combined Limited and Full Use Additive EC license.